Housing Choice

Vision

Huntsville offers a diverse range of housing options that support all generations and living needs.

About

There is a need for housing product diversification in development patterns across the City.This simply means allowing mixed products and a variety of price points within the same area.Such diversity helps neighborhoods thrive whereas single family residential alone may not achieve this.Single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and apartments should all be allowed to develop across the City.They should be co-located – not separated into clusters – to help encourage a pattern of life cycle housing.This development pattern would allow recent college grads with their first job, couples starting families as well as retirees to all live in the same community and in close proximity to each other.

Actions

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Support existing and assist in creating new civic associations throughout the city in order to build local capacity and increase civic engagement. Assign a specific liaison from the City to coordinate with these civic associations to ensure communication and relevant assistance.

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Encourage reinvestment in some of the older residential areas by developing high-quality parks located in, or close to, these neighborhoods. Ideally, every resident should be able to walk to some type of recreation facility or amenity (park, trail, etc.).

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Create a series of re-investment zones that allow homeowner tax abatements to be applied to real property for improvements and rehabilitation of housing in the same area.

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Create a Neighborhood Stabilization Team – an association of City, neighborhood, and nonprofit groups whose focus is to coordinate community activities for repairing and maintaining the current housing stock.

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Expand greenways and greenspace throughout Huntsville. Develop multi-modal trails that traverse the area. These investments pay high dividends in a community by tying parks together in a network and enhancing property values City-wide.

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Initiate stringent enforcement of current codes and consider acquisition of tax delinquent properties.

Encourage additional residential development in downtown Huntsville for moderately-priced rental product to fill current market gap and strengthen downtown as a viable mixed-use district.

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Improve commercial corridors as the health of single-family neighborhoods is greatly impacted by the appearance of the adjacent commercial corridors.

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Conduct outreach with realtors in the greater Huntsville region through education sessions and tours. This will help ensure full knowledge of assets, amenities, and opportunities related to residential options in the City, such as schools, recreation, employment, and shopping, among others.

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Develop a “Neighbors in Need” pilot program that provides low- or no-cost renovation services to disadvantaged seniors who wish to remain in their homes but who are having difficultymaintaining them.